The most wonderful Thanksgiving Part 1

My family "adopted" Jenny a number of years ago.(you may remember I attended her wedding last summer). She's really more of a member of the family than a friend. She's spent Thanksgiving with the whole Coleman gang a number of years now and she's also been inviting all of us to spend Thanksgiving at her house, in South Dakota, for a few years now.  So this year William and I and my mom and dad decided, whether she meant it or not, we'd take her up on her offer. And off to South Dakota we flew.

Luckily William and I still had frequent flyer miles we collected while flying back an forth from China. This trip was our last gift from China.

We used the tickets well.

This was also Rosie's first time to have her own seat. She's over two now so can no long fly free as a lap child. She was very proud to have her own seat.

She is such a good traveler. She especially enjoyed the toys in both the Nashville and Dallas airports and she enjoyed looking out the window on the airplane.

We did so many fun things with Ross and Jenny.  The first night we were there Ross's family generously included us in a family birthday celebration and took us bowling. This was Rosie's first time Bowling and William and I haven't been since the Halloween before we were married... 7 years ago.

Rosie LOVED bowling and got a better score than I did. Actually I was so bad I just let her play most of my turns. She giggled and danced and cheered for every one all night long.

 Rosie also really loved playing Jenny's piano. Jenny is a wonderful musician and sings and plays amazingly well. I've always loved listening to her. This trip she had her Christmas song book out and would stop and play something almost every time she walked passed the piano.

Rosie thought this was splendid and loved playing the piano too. We may have to get her one.

My favorite part of the trip was our girl's shopping day. Jenny is wonderful to shop with. She's so much fun.
While the boys played on Ross's ridiculously large farm equipment we girls when to town, got Starbucks, and went shopping.

Jenny took us to Sephora and taught us how to shop there. I've always been completely intimidated by that store and have never gone with any one my own age, gender, and color. (the Sephora in Shanghai had nothing that would match my skin tone. Everything was too yellow or too pink.)

I've never had so much fun in that store before and now I feel much more confident about going back. Rosie also loved shopping in Sephora. She loves make up and loves colors and walked around and looked at everything with Jenny while I got a make up consultation.

In the end we came away with a little black and while bag that Rosie was very proud of and they even gave her some of her very own samples. She was so proud of them she wouldn't let them go the whole time we walked around the mall.  She is such a good little adorable shopper.

After some very productive shoe shopping it was time to meet up with "the boys". We'd left it to Ross and William to pick up my dad from the airport and then we headed to Falls Park, on the Big Sioux River. (that's where the city if Sioux Falls gets its name).

 We went there because it was magically decorated for Christmas and Jenny knew we would love it.

ALL the trees were covered in lights. It was so fun and magical I kind of forgot how cold it was.

We then ended our wonderful day with Gluten Free Pizza and hot tea.
Doesn't Rosie look so grown up with her own cup of tea?

Another Anniversary!

Wow, This has been a crazy week for Anniversaries!  First mine and William's wedding anniversary, then our one year in China and yesterday (Nov. 12) was our good friends Julie and Martin's one year Wedding Anniversary!

Last year William and I landed in Nashville airport on November 9th at about 10pm. Then we took the long drive home with my mom. 

We rested for a day and tried to figure out what time zone we were in and then got back on a plane on November 11th to fly to New York. Yes. We are crazy.

Julie has been a dear friend of mine since we lived together in college, she is also Rosie's Godmother, and she was getting married. It just so happened it worked out that the date she wanted was the day after we arrived in the US so that was super awesome. There was no way we were going to miss that wedding.  So off to New York, New York we flew.  It's not like we knew what time zone we were in any way... so what was one more flight?


We had such a wonderful time. I'm still really happy we decided to go.  It was the most fun wedding I've ever been too. And what made it really really special was the fact that Me and William and Rosie, and one other person, were the only guests. It was relaxing and fun and happy and wonderful.

We started our day with breakfast and sitting around talking and laughing. Then a limo picked us up at Julie's Manhattan apartment and took us to New York City Hall.

There was a short, simple but totally sweet ceremony where we all laughed and smiled. We also doubled as Wedding Photographers so that was fun too.  Then the Limo picked us up again and we drank the most amazing champagne while we drove to a very nice restaurant for lunch.

It was such a simple and intimate day of celebrating the love of close friends and the love of Julie and Martin. It was simple and elegant and perfect.

I think my most favorite moment was when we were all walking home from lunch and a man stopped Julie to tell her how amazing she looked, and what a wonderful dress she was wearing. (He was right. She looked totally hot) I told him that it was her wedding dress and he got all excited for her and clapped his hands, took a good long look at Martin and said "And he's CUTE TOO! I would know. I'm gay."  I said "we know" and we all had a good laugh. It was such a funny typical New York moment.

William and I really enjoy New York every time we go but this trip was extra special. We spent the rest of the weekend exploring Manhattan in the early hours of the morning (we were jet lagged)  and letting Julie show us some of her favorite places.

But it was also a wonderful trip because we got to be part of a very special day of a very special friend.

So Happy Anniversary Julie and Martin. We love you very much and we are so happy that you let us be a part of your special day and a part of your lives.

With These Rings... Happy 7th Wedding Anniversary!

Today (November 6th) is mine and William's 7th Wedding Anniversary.

It does not seem like it has been that long. It seems like just a few years ago really.

Out of the 7 anniversaries we have celebrated, only 3 have been in the US. We've had more anniversaries in China that we have in the States.

I'm not sure if we should do something very American, like eat steak, today. Or if we should have Chinese food.

We've had so many grand adventures since we've been married.

We've visited 13 states in the US. Not counting the ones we had to drive through to get to our destination.

They had the fewest teeth in New Mexico.

We started our marriage with an international flight, and we have been on countless flights since then.  Rosie has been on 22 since she's been born, and that's just in two years. So I can't even count how many flights we've been on.

Several have been International.

Swan Lake Ballet in Prague, on our honeymoon.

We Honeymooned in Prague, Czec Republic. Since then we have visited 6 countries.

Plus Hong Kong, which isn't it's own country but you still need a visa to go there and it's not really China either.

The one nice dinner we had on our Honeymoon.

We've moved 4 times. Two of those were Internationally.

Across the river from the Prague Castle

We've learned to cook some Chinese food and some Korean food and have eaten things we never imagined we would.

Donkey is quite good actually.

We're also pretty dang good with chop sticks by now.

A romantic carriage ride through the old streets of Prague

We've made two brand new humans. Though we're still waiting to meet Human number 2.

I think we should make a couple more.

Our first Thanksgiving,  days after returning from our honeymoon

We've visited 3 different Disney lands!
There are currently 5 world wide, with another being built in Shanghai.

I think we'll collect them all.

We've had some pretty amazing adventures during our short 7 years of marriage.

I couldn't imagine doing any of them with out William. His courage and strength have made me a better person.

I look forward to many more years of wonderful adventures. 

I love you my darling William. 

Happy Anniversary.

Also, thank you for letting me warm my feet up on you.

(Picture by ingridjoystudio.com)

Rosie's Special Day -- Happy Birthday little one

Rosie's Birthday was such a wonderful and special day. I have WAY too many pictures of it, but she is just so cute it's so hard to post just a few.

She is also very very loved and had gifts coming from all over the world. Literally. she got gifts from friends in China, Venezuela and several states in the US.

We started our day with tea and pancakes and of course a present or two. Rosie was very excited when she saw her big pile of gifts, but I was so proud of her that she just wanted to open one at a time and play with it for a few hours before moving on to the next one.

Since it was Rosie's Special Day she got to pick all the things we did that day. Of course that meant a dance party. So we put on our dancing shoes and all danced in the living room to Christmas music.

Also, Rosie loves Rainbows and colors so we tried to incorporate as much color into our day as we could. That is the reason for Rosie's extra special rainbow outfit and her sparkly red dancing shoes.

After dancing for a good long time Rosie wanted to go out for a walk. Going for walks is Rosie's favorite thing.  She loves being outside, especially now that the weather isn't so hot.

We also decided to show her how to play in the Autumn leaves. She thought jumping in the pile of leaves that William made was great fun.

I know it's a lot of pictures... but doesn't she just have the greatest smile?!

Rosie's favorite place to walk is out in the back pasture, far away from the house. She likes to follow the goats and dogs out there and check on every one.

Rosie giving her little Andy a kiss. He got too tired on our long walk and William had to carry him home. William is so nice.

Of course our new baby goats need kisses and cuddles too.
Rosie loves playing outside with her goats. She likes to talk to them and pet them and make sure they are all doing well. She's such a good goat girl.

Here are a few pictures of Rosie opening her gifts. As I mentioned before, it took us ALL DAY to open her gifts. She really enjoyed taking time with each one. Each one was very special to her.

We had to read each book she got a couple times before she could move on to any thing else. Here she got Corduroy from her Grandma in Truckee.

oh yeah. and we had cupcakes for lunch.

another gift....

 

It's a hat! Rosie loves hats.

Opening more gifts...

And another stylish hat!

Hanging out with our rainbow socks...

And reading the book about Home Birth that our friend Diana sent us. Rosie really likes this book. Here she's pointing out the mama's belly and telling us how it's going to "open" and then an "egg" will come, then the baby is born. Rosie is so smart. She calls this her "boobie book."

Our friend Fanny, in China, sent Rosie some pretty princess things...

 And William made us a very special dinner of Rainbow Clam Spaghetti.

 Rosie loves pasta, and she likes clams, and since we were doing a rainbow themed day we thought this would be fun. I got the idea from Rosie's Godmother, Julie.  It turned out really really well. It was super tasty and the colors looked great. They didn't turn out very well in the picture, but in person they were great.

As you can see Rosie loved them very much. She especially loved the pink noodles and giggled every time she took a bite.

Since it was a special day we had Sparkling Apple Cider and Rosie got to use an extra special glass for it.

Then it was cake time!

We sang Happy Birthday twice because Rosie thought it was so much fun to all sing together ....

Then she blew out both of her candles all by her self. 

I made a Rainbow cake of course. Rosie had fun telling us what color each layer was.

I was very happy with how well it turned out and that it didn't fall apart or fall over or anything.

Then it was time for some pre-bed time silliness with dancing, chasing through the house, wearing of hats and of course a few cartoons.

 It was the most wonderful Birthday celebration I think I've ever participated in. We all had fun all day long. It helped that we had an almost endless flow of presents and cake.  Rosie was such a good girl all day long and smiled all day.

 

We had so much fun opening her gifts all day long that we even ran out of time and had to wait till the next day to open the last one.

Rosie didn't mind at all though. She got a little dolly wagon house with two little dolls and a horse. She played with it all day long and still carries the dollies around the house with her. Some times she even nurses them, takes them to the potty and wraps them up in her blankie for a nap. She's such a good little mama.

I love that she can be both girly and rough and tumble dirty at the same time.

So that was our super wonderful Birthday Celebration with our little Angel. Thank you everyone for making it so wonderful and for all your love and gifts and cards you sent. Rosie LOVES cards and keeps some of them in her bed where looks at them in the evenings. Others she keeps on the kitchen table where she can tell us what colors they are while we eat breakfast. 

Every day she is more and more fun to be around.

Also, thank you William for all these wonderful pictures you took of Rosie's special day. (check out his iPhone pics on the right for more awesome photos)